outbreak. we have an update. >> woodruff: as the candidates spar over what happened in libya, the violence in syria, and the fallout from the arab spring, jeffrey brown talks with zbigniew brzezinski and walter russell mead. >> ifill: paul solman talks with authors donald barlett and james steele. their book blames free trade for the demise of the american middle class. >> do we want a society built on the principle that the only thing that matters is the lowest possible price or a society built on the principle that everyone should have a living wage? >> woodruff: and ray suarez looks at cuba's move to give its citizens the freedom to travel abroad starting in january. that's all ahead on tonight's newshour. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: i was worried the health care system was all its own. with united health care i got help that fits my life, information on my phone, connection to doctors who get where i'm from and tools to estimate my care may cost. never missed a beat. >> we're more than 78,000 people looking out for more than 70 million americans. t

. >> woodruff: that last point involved the assault on the u.s. consulate in benghazi libya and the death of ambassador chris stevens on the night of september 11. the administration initially blamed an anti-muslim film for inciting the trouble. more recently officials have said new information indicates it was a terrorist attack. today romney again criticized the president's response in libya. >> i want to be very clear. the blame for the murder of our people in libya and the attacks on our embassies in so many other countries lie solely with those who carry them out. no one else. but it is our responsibility and the responsibility of the president to use america's greatest power to shape his not to lead from behind. leaving our destiny at the mercy of events. >> woodruff: for its par, the obama campaign aired a new ad that accused romney of injecting politics into a national tragedy with his initial response to the consulate attack. >> when our u.s. diplomats were attacked in libya, the "new york times" said romney's knee-jerk response showed an extraordinary lack of presidential

congressional probe into security failures at the u.s. consulate in libya. >> woodruff: we head to colorado, where the presidential candidates are targeting suburban voters. >> some of the things romney supports, i don't think are conducive to women's issues and as a business owner, i don't thinkbama is a good choice. >> ifill: outrage in pakistan, after an outspoken 14-year-old was shot by the taliban for promoting education for girls. >> woodruff: and we examine new evidence that lance armstrong was at the center of a sophisticated professional doping program, including testimony from his former teammates. >> ifill: that's all ahead on tonight's "newshour." major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> ifill: the supreme court heard arguments today in one of the most closely watched cases of the term. it marked a return to the decades-long legal debate o

investigation into the assault on the u.s. consulate in libya. >> woodruff: we look at new findings showing australia's great barrier reef has lost half its coral in the last 27 years. >> ifill: and we close with snapshots of three of this year's macarthur genius award winners, each with a unique view of war. >> people tend to look at the military, they tend to look at war and they tend to look at conflict as something very black and white. it's not like that at all. >> ifill: that's all ahead on tonight's newshour. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: creating new enriching experiences. through intel's philosophy of "invest you for the future" we're helping bring these new capabilities to market. we're investing billions of dollars in r&d around the globe to have the heart of tomorrow's innovations. by investing today in technologicalled advances here at intel, we can help make a better tomorrow. >> and by the bill and melinda gates foundation. dedicated to the idea that all people deserve the chance to live a healthy, productive life. and with the ongoing support of th

focus was on the vice president's debate statement about the attack in benghazi, libya, that killed the u.s. ambassador and three other americans last month. >> we weren't told they wanted more security again. we did not know they wanted more security again. and by the way, at the time, we were told exactly... we said exactly what the intelligence community told us that they knew. >> woodruff: but at a congressional hearing a day earlier, a state department official acknowledged that she declined requests for more security in benghazi. and at the debate, ryan charged the administration failed in a critical duty. >> our ambassador in paris has a marine detachment guarding him. shouldn't we have a marine detachment guarding our ambassador in benghazi, a place where we knew that there was an al qaeda cell with arms? this is becoming more troubling by the day. they first blamed the youtube video; now, they're trying to blame the romney-ryan ticket for making this an issue. >> woodruff: the vice president, in turn, charged it was ryan who was stretching the truth. >> with all due respect, th

three key issues. first, libya, and the attack that killed the u.s. ambassador and three other americans on september 11th. president obama and mitt romney sparred heatedly over whether the administration was honest about what happened. the president strongly riticized romney's initial response to the attack. >> president obama: while we were still dealing with our diplomats being threatened, governor romney put out a press release. trying to make political points. and that's not how a commander in chief operates. you don't turn national security into a political issue. certainly not right when it's happening. >> reporter: romney fired back that the president's team blamed the attack on an antimuslim video even afterheynew wasn so. >> it was a terrorist attack, and it took a long time for that to be told to the american people. whether that was some misleading, or, instead, whether we just didn't know what happened. i think you have to ask yourself why didn't we know five days later when the ambassador went on tv to say this was a demonstration. >> reporter: that was in referen

assault that killed the u.s. ambassador to libya. the associated press reported the cia station chief cabled washington the next day. he cited evidence it was a terrorist attack, and not a protest, as top u.s. officials said for another week. today, in a radio interview, republican vice presidential candidate paul ryan called for president obama to say more in monday's final debate. >> they refuse to answer the basic questions about what happened. you know, and so his response has been inconsistent, it's been misleading. and more than a month later we still have more questions than answered. and so hopefully on monday night they can, that will give the president a chance to explain himself >> sreenivasan: the president pointed out in this week's debate that, the day after the assault, he said: "no acts of terror will ever shake" u.s. resolve. republicans insist he was speaking only generally. in another development today, "the new york times" reported that one of the alleged ringleaders of the attack has yet to be questioned, and is defiantly showing himself in public. the president d

on the u.s. consulate in benghazi, libya. the associated press reported a state department document listed 230 security incidents in libya in the 12 months ending last july. then, last month, u.s. ambassador chris stevens and three other americans were killed when gunmen attacked the consulate. f.b.i. teams have had only limited access to the site, but attorney general eric holder today praised the libyan government's response. it's a challenging environment in which to operate but i think we have done pretty well given the circumstances in which we find ourselves and we found ourselves able to move about and do the things that we have wanted to do because of the assistance we've gotten from the libyan government as well as from some of our other allies >> sreenivasan: a u.s. house committee holds a hearing tomorrow on the consulate attack. in pakistan, a taliban gunman shot and wounded a 14-year-old activist known for promoting girls' education. malala yousufzai was hit in the head and neck during the attack in the swat valley region. doctors said the wounds were not life-threateni

more proximate country, libya? where a similar sort of revolution rose from the streets and now, you know, we've had terrorist attacks in benghazi >> i think that's right. i mean, you look at this situation. this is not clean diplomacy you find in a magazine. this is war. and the choice you're going to have to make here is is do you accelerate assad's decline by spoaring people you don't like? or do you step back and say we're uncomfortable with these folks? as paul said we've seen this problem play out in afghanistan. we don't want to support these guys. either decision is fraught with peril. and the decision of aiding the jihadis, i think, would take you down potentially to aiding people who oppose the united states. >> suarez: what is the use of cluster bombs tell you? it looks like assad is ready and has been ready to make war on his people in a way that bloodier and bloodier with each passing month >> i wouldn't place a lot of significance on this particular step in terms of these munitions. it's part of a longer process of the regime having escalated the level of violence, the

ino libya in 2011 he pushed brita and france out to leadership of that nato operation tond take down colonel kadafy. so very diffent world views. i thiif all a the agreement last ght shouldn't mask the fact that we have a real choice ong november 6. >> woodruff: richard haas, how do you size up the two after last night? and how do you see those differences? >> well, actually i thought the sim layers were greater than the differences. thato me was in some ways theth most striking part of the debate. both also, as ambassador burns pointed out, emphasized the integral, the close linkage between what we want to do abroad and what it is we're doing here at home, that essentially foreign policy can only be successful abroad if we have the resource space and if we can set an example to the world. both of them emphasized that point. ey both als emphasized a a lot the middle east. there i thought what was interesting wasn't so much what they do but what they wouldn't do. both candidates talked about the limits to the american involvement, say, in syria. they talked about the problems of